Friday 22 October 2010

Mixed Case Winner

As those of you who bought tickets for the wine festival may or may not have been aware, everyone who purchased was entered into a prize draw to win a case of wine from The Perfect Wine.

At our post wine festival meeting on Wednesday we drew a name out of a hat...

And the winner is....


SALLY LLOYD of Myriad Marketing.

Huge congratulations Sally, your mixed case is on its way to you...

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Battle of the Wine Merchants

The first Norwich Festival culminated in an event on 1st October at which local wine merchants went head-to-head for the titles of Best Red and Best White. Each merchant entered two bottles, each of which had to retail for less than £10.

Over fifty members of the public dropped in to the WinePress @ Wensum wine bar to sample the wines and vote on their favourite. Labels were covered to make sure that people weren’t swayed by preconceptions of different grapes or regions, and each bottle was numbered.

Aaaaand, drum-roll please, the winners were:

WHITES:

WINNER – Number 3: Naked Wines’ Sylvia Reserve Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010

2nd PLACE – Number 5: The Perfect Wine’s Lenotti Colli dei Tigli 2009 Bianco del Veneto

3rd PLACE – Number 4: Virgin Wines’ Dom des Grands Presbyt`eres Muscadet sur lie 2009

REDS:

WINNER – Number 7: Naked Wines’ Chalk Hill Assemblage 2009

2nd PLACE – Number 10: Virgin Wines’ Dom des Grands Presbytères Muscadet sur lie 2009

3rd PLACE – Number 9: The Perfect Wine’s Chateau Haute Fontaine Tradition 2006 Corbières

Thank you to everyone who came along and voted! The wines can be found on the merchants’ websites.

The wines were revealed at the end of the evening – but for any early-comers who left before the announcement and are wondering which wines they voted for, the complete list of wines is :

WHITES:

1. Mellasat Vineyards: Chenin Blanc 2010

2. Premium Wine Collections

3. Naked Wines: Sylvia Reserve Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010

4. Virgin Wines: Dom des Grands Presbyt`eres Muscadet sur lie 2009

5. The Perfect Wine: Lenotti Colli dei Tigli 2009 Bianco del Veneto

REDS:

6. Premium Wine Collections

7. Naked Wines: Chalk Hill Assemblage 2009

8. Mellasat Vineyards: Revelation 2009

9. The Perfect Wine: Chateau Haute Fontaine Tradition 2006 Corbières

10. Virgin Wines: Dom des Grands Presbytères Muscadet sur lie 2009

Monday 16 August 2010

Events Calendar Now Confirmed!

The festival team has been frantically busy over the last couple of weeks arranging the festival events. I’m please to announce that the Norwich Wine Festival events calendar has now been confirmed and the details of all the various events are listed on the Events page of the festival website. Remember that your wine festival ticket includes two 50% vouchers for the Norwich Wine Festival events of your choice. Numbers are limited so pre-booking is essential – use the booking forms on our website to reserve your places.

In addition to the events and tastings we’ve arranged ourselves we’re also putting together a list of other wine related events that are going on during the food and wine festival season. See the bottom of the Events page for details of these special events.

Thursday 5 August 2010

Getting ready

So, the first Norwich Wine Festival is going to start in under a month. Who'd have thought a) that Norwich could have been bereft of such a celebration for so many years and b) that we'd have pulled it together in such comparitively short space of time.

The build up is now really gaining some momentum and I for one am very excited about the opportunity this will present to Norwich wine lovers to try all sorts of different wines. Now we have all the participating venues on board we are able to start identifying which wines we are particularly looking forward to tasting.

I'll let you in on my list - the Picpoul de Pinet at Reeds is delicious and I will be revisiting it during the festival. At the Maids Head they have a dessert wine, a Moscato d'Asti, which I'm pretty excited about tasting - I think I'll have to order some pudding with it! The Lawyer lists a wine I first discovered when working in the French Pyrenees, Chateau du Barry. My uncle came to visit me and brought a few bottles with him, and we were all amazed at the coincidence since the snake in our garden had become known as Barry the Asp. I'm holding out for an Indian summer so I can dedicate a wine festival afternoon to the Garden House, where they list the delicious Orangeraie Rose. Yum.

I hope you'll find plenty of other gems during the festival. Please let us know which wines are your favourites.

Emily

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Sneak Peek!


We’ve been frantically working to get the festival details finalised over the last couple of days, while also getting the some of the printed promotional ready.
The poster artwork is finally finished and on its way to Barney at Dynamic to get printed. Here’s a sneak peek of our festival poster. Keep an eye out for them around Norwich over the coming weeks!

Monday 19 July 2010

An Exciting Day...

Since posting this morning, we have had the fantastic news that the wonderful Clapham & Collinge Solicitors will be the headline sponsors for the Norwich Wine Festival!

We've also heard that Dynamic Print will be supporting the festival as well.

It's all kicking off...

:D

-Rebecca

Getting the Blog rolling...

In betwixt and between all the bits and pieces that Emily, Amanda and I are working on to prepare for the Wine Festival, we’re finding time to get quite excited about it all!

We have some really excellent bars on board, all of whom are known for putting extra effort into making sure that they have interesting wine lists. Some of them will be featuring specific wines for the festival, while others will be opening their whole wine list.

We’re gradually getting to a point where we can think about events that will take place throughout the Festival month – the launch and final event are taking shape, and tastings will be peppered throughout the month at the various venues.

Wine Festival Facts (so far)

Festival Dates:
1st September – 3rd October
(running alongside Norfolk Food Festival – yay!)

Venues:
- The Unthank Arms
- The Garden House
- The Last Wine Bar
- The Lawyer
- The Playhouse Bar
- The Bicycle Shop
- St Benedict’s Restaurant
- The Library
- The Maids Head Hotel Wine Bar
- … and we’re waiting to hear back from a few more exciting venues…

Watch this space for more information! :)

We’re continuing to meet with venue managers, supporters (such as the fantastic Will of Farnell Clarke Chartered Accountants and the wonderful Dan of Banana Fudge Studios) and people with excellent ideas for the festival month.

If you have any thoughts, post your comments here or contact us at wine@winefestivalnorwich.org.uk

Tickets will be going on sale on the Norwich Wine Festival website shortly.

We’re currently only 43 days away from the launch of the Festival on 1st September… wow…

-Rebecca :)